BEIJING — China’s major industrial firms posted steady profit growth in the first seven months of the year, official data showed on Aug 27.

From January to July, industrial companies with annual revenue over 20 million yuan (about $3 million) reported total profits of more than 4.2 trillion yuan, 21.2 percent more than the same period in 2016, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.

The growth rate was slightly slower than the 22 percent in January-June but much faster than the 8.5 percent increase in 2016.

In July, profits of major industrial firms rose 16.5 percent year on year, slower than the 19.1 percent rate in June.

NBS statistician He Ping attributed the slower growth in profit to high temperatures in July when a number of factories halted production.

However, industrial performance has kept improving and has profit maintained fast growth thanks to ongoing supply-side structural reform, He added.

From January to July, profit in the equipment manufacturing sector surged 18.1 percent year on year to over 3.7 trillion yuan, and in the mining industry jumped 790 percent to 279.6 billion yuan.

The industrial sector, which accounts for about one-third of China’s GDP, started to pick up last year after a bad 2015.